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• Windows 8/Surface Lunch Event Summary

  - by Tim Murphy

  Today was a big day for Microsoft with two separate launch event.  The first for Windows 8 and all of it’s hardware partners.  The second was specifically to introduce the Microsoft Windows 8 Surface tablet.  Below are some of the take-aways I got from the webcasts. Windows 8 Launch The three general area that Microsoft focused on were the release of the OS itself, the public unveiling of the Windows Store and the new devices available from its hardware partners. The release of the OS focused on the fact that it will be available at mid-night tonight for both new PCs and for upgrades.  I can’t say that this interested me that much since it was already known to most people.  I think what they did show well was how easy the OS really is to use. The Windows Store is also not a new feature to those of us who have been running the pre-release versions of Windows 8 or have owned Windows Phone 7 for the past 2 years.  What was interesting is that the Windows Store launches with more apps available than any other platforms store at their respective launch.  I think this says a lot about how Microsoft focuses on the ability of developers to create software and make it available.  The of course were sure to emphasize that the Windows Store has better monetary terms for developers than its competitors. The also showed off the fact that XBox Music streaming is available for to all Windows 8 user for free.  Couple this with the Bing suite of apps that give you news, weather, sports and finance right out of the box and I think most people will find the environment a joy to use. I think the hardware demo, while quick and furious, really show where Windows shine: CHOICE!  They made a statement that over 1000 devices have been certified for Windows 8.  They showed tablets, laptops, desktops, all-in-ones and convertibles.  Since these devices have industry standard connectors they give a much wider variety of accessories and devices that you can use with them. Steve Balmer then came on stage and tried to see how many times he could use the “magical”.  He focused on how the Windows 8 OS is designed to integrate with SkyDrive, Skype and Outlook.com.  He also enforced that they think Windows 8 is the best choice for the Enterprise when it comes to protecting data and integrating across devices including Windows Phone 8. With that we were left to wait for the second event of the day. Surface Launch The second event of the day started with kids with magnets.  Ok, they were adults, but who doesn’t like playing with magnets.  Steven Sinofsky detached and reattached the Surface keyboard repeatedly, clearly enjoying himself.  It turns out that there are 4 magnets in the cover, 2 for alignment and 2 as connectors. They then went to giving us the details on the display.  The 10.6” display is optically bonded to the case and is optimized to reduce glare.  I think this came through very well in the demonstrations. The properties of the case were also a great selling point.  The VaporMg allowed them to drop the device on stage, on purpose, and continue working.  Of course they had to bring out the skate boards made from Surface devices. “It just has to feel right” was the reason they gave for many of their design decisions from the weight and size of the device to the way the kickstand and camera work together.  While this gave you the feeling that the whole process was trial and error you could tell that a lot of science went into the specs.  This included making sure that the magnets were strong enough to hold the cover on and still have a 3 year old remove the cover without effort. I am glad that they also decided the a USB port would be part of the spec since it give so many options.  They made the point that this allows Surface to leverage over 420 million existing devices.  That works for me. The last feature that I really thought was important was the microSD port.  Begin stuck with the onboard memory has been an aggravation of mine with many of the devices in the market today. I think they did job of really getting the audience to understand why you want this platform and this particular device.  Using personal examples like creating a video of a birthday party and being in it or the fact that the device was being used to live blog the event and control the lights and presentation.  They showed very well that it was not only fun but very capable of getting real work done.  Handing out tablets to the crowd didn’t hurt either.  In the end I really wanted a Surface even though I really have no need for one on a daily basis.  Great job Microsoft! del.icio.us Tags: Windows 8,Win8,Windows 8 Luanch

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• Relation between " lines of the longest working program " in a language and familiarity with it?

  - by Tim

  In some computer master program online application, it says: Please list the programming languages in which you have written programs. For each language, indicate the length in lines of the longest working program you have written in that language. You may approximate, but only count those parts of the program that you wrote yourself. I don't quite remember that, and I have never counted the lines of each program. Do programmers always know approximately how many lines in each of his programs, and keep record of them? What is the relation between " lines of the longest working program " in a language and familiarity with it? Typically, how many lines will indicate the programmer being excellent, good, fair, or unfamiliar with the language? Is knowing "lines of the longest working program" really helpful?

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• Add Matlab to main menu

  - by Tim

  I was trying to add the installed matlab to the menu of Applications under Ubuntu 10.10. I clicked System-Preference-Main Menu - Programming - New Item, where I input the Matlab file .../MatlabR2010b/bin/matlab as the command, and selected the type to be "Application". Then I finished. But when i click the item in the menu of Applications, the Matlab icon shows up a few seconds and then nothing else happens. If I select the type to be "Application in Terminal" in the last step of adding Matlab to the menu of Applications, then when I click the item in the menu of Applications, there will be firstly a terminal window and then the Matlab command window. So I was wondering how to solve the problem of Matlab not starting when the type has been selected to be "Application"? Also is there a way to eliminate the terminal appearing when the type has been selected to be "Application in Terminal"? Thanks!

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• How to start to gain experience of managing a project

  - by Tim

  There are some job requirements of project management experience for a programmer, such as: the candidate has to have some experience managing a project, not necessarily with subordinates, but rather having worked on a project all the way from design down to test. I was wondering what "subordinates" mean here? if there are some books, webpages or elsewhere with both general guideline and simple practical sample projects to help one get some basics about the whole process of a project. I am particularly interested in projects for both Linux and Windows, in C, C++, Python, Java. I am considering to start by playing on my own, not eager to find a company yet. My major was not CS, so I might lack the basics.

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• Is The Ease Of Windows Phone Development Ruining Its Image

  - by Tim Murphy

  I was reading an article on Mashable recently by a long time iPhone user who is living solely on a Lumia 920 at the moment and giving her assessment.  One thing that struck a nerve with me was her describing the Windows Phone ecosystem as immature.  She wasn’t saying this because of the number of apps or the big names like most people do.  She means the quality of the apps in the store. This hit a nerve with me.  I find it hard to believe that the majority of app on iOS are of any higher quality than any other platform.  I believe in any ecosystem you are going to find some high end, high quality apps, but the majority by default will be from people who are trying to solve a problem but do not have the resources to have top graphics and full blown testing.  There will also be a large number that are just there trying to trick you into giving up some cash. Does any of the mean that we shouldn’t take notice of this complaint?  Of course not!  We should always strive to publish the best quality apps possible.  Don’t do things like leaving default app icons and backgrounds.  Put a little effort into your design.  You should also spend as much time as possible ensuring against crashes and giving the user the best experience possible.  Think through your apps organization and navigation.  Go the extra step of putting it into beta and letting select people use it and give you feedback before going to full release. Remember, if we want people to appreciate the Windows Phone platform we have to make sure we give them apps that they are going to enjoy using. del.icio.us Tags: Windows Phone,iPhone,iOS,Nokia,Lumia 920,Mashable

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• Algorithm for grouping friends at the cinema [closed]

  - by Tim Skauge

  I got a brain teaser for you - it's not as simple as it sounds so please read and try to solve the issue. Before you ask if it's homework - it's not! I just wish to see if there's an elegant way of solving this. Here's the issue: X-number of friends want's to go to the cinema and wish to be seated in the best available groups. Best case is that everyone sits together and worst case is that everyone sits alone. Fewer groups are preferred over more groups. Sitting alone is least preferred. Input is the number of people going to the cinema and output should be an array of integer arrays that contains: Ordered combinations (most preferred are first) Number of people in each group Below are some examples of number of people going to the cinema and a list of preferred combinations these people can be seated: 1 person: 1 2 persons: 2, 1+1 3 persons: 3, 2+1, 1+1+1 4 persons: 4, 2+2, 3+1, 2+1+1, 1+1+1+1 5 persons: 5, 3+2, 4+1, 2+2+1, 3+1+1, 2+1+1+1, 1+1+1+1+1 6 persons: 6, 3+3, 4+2, 2+2+2, 5+1, 3+2+1, 2+2+1+1, 2+1+1+1+1, 1+1+1+1+1+1 Example with more than 7 persons explodes in combinations but I think you get the point by now. Question is: What does an algorithm look like that solves this problem? My language by choice is C# so if you could give an answer in C# it would be fantastic!

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• Is it possible to automatically nofity for update of manually installed packages?

  - by Tim

  If having installed some packages downloaded from website , I was wondering if it is possible to have auto notification when its update is available, just as those packages in Ubuntu repositories. Can the packages downloaded be in deb form, or even in source code? For example, nevernote maintained in sourceforge, http://nevernote.sourceforge.net/index.htm, downloadable from http://sourceforge.net/projects/nevernote/files/Current/nevernote-0.99_i386.deb/download packages from Ubuntu PPA https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+ppas.

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• Local LINQtoSQL Database For Your Windows Phone 7 Application

  - by Tim Murphy

  There aren’t many applications that are of value without having some for of data store.  In Windows Phone development we have a few options.  You can store text directly to isolated storage.  You can also use a number of third party libraries to create or mimic databases in isolated storage.  With Mango we gained the ability to have a native .NET database approach which uses LINQ to SQL.  In this article I will try to bring together the components needed to implement this last type of data store and fill in some of the blanks that I think other articles have left out. Defining A Database The first things you are going to need to do is define classes that represent your tables and a data context class that is used as the overall database definition.  The table class consists of column definitions as you would expect.  They can have relationships and constraints as with any relational DBMS.  Below is an example of a table definition. First you will need to add some assembly references to the code file. using System.ComponentModel;using System.Data.Linq;using System.Data.Linq.Mapping; You can then add the table class and its associated columns.  It needs to implement INotifyPropertyChanged and INotifyPropertyChanging.  Each level of the class needs to be decorated with the attribute appropriate for that part of the definition.  Where the class represents the table the properties represent the columns.  In this example you will see that the column is marked as a primary key and not nullable with a an auto generated value. You will also notice that the in the column property’s set method It uses the NotifyPropertyChanging and NotifyPropertyChanged methods in order to make sure that the proper events are fired. [Table]public class MyTable: INotifyPropertyChanged, INotifyPropertyChanging{ public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged; private void NotifyPropertyChanged(string propertyName) { if(PropertyChanged != null) { PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName)); } } public event PropertyChangingEventHandler PropertyChanging; private void NotifyPropertyChanging(string propertyName) { if(PropertyChanging != null) { PropertyChanging(this, new PropertyChangingEventArgs(propertyName)); } } private int _TableKey; [Column(IsPrimaryKey = true, IsDbGenerated = true, DbType = "INT NOT NULL Identity", CanBeNull = false, AutoSync = AutoSync.OnInsert)] public int TableKey { get { return _TableKey; } set { NotifyPropertyChanging("TableKey"); _TableKey = value; NotifyPropertyChanged("TableKey"); } } The last part of the database definition that needs to be created is the data context.  This is a simple class that takes an isolated storage location connection string its constructor and then instantiates tables as public properties. public class MyDataContext: DataContext{ public MyDataContext(string connectionString): base(connectionString) { MyRecords = this.GetTable<MyTable>(); } public Table<MyTable> MyRecords;} Creating A New Database Instance Now that we have a database definition it is time to create an instance of the data context within our Windows Phone app.  When your app fires up it should check if the database already exists and create an instance if it does not.  I would suggest that this be part of the constructor of your ViewModel. db = new MyDataContext(connectionString);if(!db.DatabaseExists()){ db.CreateDatabase();} The next thing you have to know is how the connection string for isolated storage should be constructed.  The main sticking point I have found is that the database cannot be created unless the file mode is read/write.  You may have different connection strings but the initial one needs to be similar to the following. string connString = "Data Source = 'isostore:/MyApp.sdf'; File Mode = read write"; Using you database Now that you have done all the up front work it is time to put the database to use.  To make your life a little easier and keep proper separation between your view and your viewmodel you should add a couple of methods to the viewmodel.  These will do the CRUD work of your application.  What you will notice is that the SubmitChanges method is the secret sauce in all of the methods that change data. private myDataContext myDb;private ObservableCollection<MyTable> _viewRecords;public ObservableCollection<MyTable> ViewRecords{ get { return _viewRecords; } set { _viewRecords = value; NotifyPropertyChanged("ViewRecords"); }}public void LoadMedstarDbData(){ var tempItems = from MyTable myRecord in myDb.LocalScans select myRecord; ViewRecords = new ObservableCollection<MyTable>(tempItems);}public void SaveChangesToDb(){ myDb.SubmitChanges();}public void AddMyTableItem(MyTable newScan){ myDb.LocalScans.InsertOnSubmit(newScan); myDb.SubmitChanges();}public void DeleteMyTableItem(MyTable newScan){ myDb.LocalScans.DeleteOnSubmit(newScan); myDb.SubmitChanges();} Updating existing database What happens when you need to change the structure of your database?  Unfortunately you have to add code to your application that checks the version of the database which over time will create some pollution in your codes base.  On the other hand it does give you control of the update.  In this example you will see the DatabaseSchemaUpdater in action.  Assuming we added a “Notes” field to the MyTable structure, the following code will check if the database is the latest version and add the field if it isn’t. if(!myDb.DatabaseExists()){ myDb.CreateDatabase();}else{ DatabaseSchemaUpdater dbUdater = myDb.CreateDatabaseSchemaUpdater(); if(dbUdater.DatabaseSchemaVersion < 2) { dbUdater.AddColumn<MyTable>("Notes"); dbUdater.DatabaseSchemaVersion = 2; dbUdater.Execute(); }} Summary This approach does take a fairly large amount of work, but I think the end product is robust and very native for .NET developers.  It turns out to be worth the investment. del.icio.us Tags: Windows Phone,Windows Phone 7,LINQ to SQL,LINQ,Database,Isolated Storage

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• Optical Character Recognition software recommendations?

  - by Tim

  I have seen some ebooks/papers that were apparently scanned from their paper versions but the text in the ebooks/papers can amazingly be copied out. I suppose the directly-scanned versions must have been processed by some Optical Character Recognition software. So I would like to know what are the recommended Optical Character Recognition softwares? Especially those that are either for Ubuntu or free? If those for Windows are far more superior, please let me know as well. I am particularly interested in those OCRs that can accept a scanned pdf file as input and still produce as output another pdf file that looks the same as the input one but with its text copyable. Thanks and regards! Please limit one software per answer

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• How to make read-only file system writable?

  - by Tim

  I am not sure since when the filesystem on my digital audio player has been changed to be read-only. I cannot copy files into it or remove files on it. Are there some possible reasons for the player's file system to change the permission of its file system? I tried chmod: $ sudo chmod a+rw SGTL\ MSCN/ chomd: changing permissions of `SGTL MSCN/': Read-only file system where "SGTL MSCN" is the mounted point of the digital audio player. I was wondering how to make it writable? Thanks and regards!

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• Use Extension Methods to find first and last day of the month

  - by Tim Hibbard

  A lot of reports work on data from last month.  It is a nice touch to have these dates pre-populated for your users.  Using extension methods, the code can look cleaner too. Extension Methods: public static class DateHelper { public static DateTime FirstOfTheMonth(this DateTime dt) { return new DateTime(dt.Year, dt.Month, 1); }   public static DateTime LastOfTheMonth(this DateTime dt) { return dt.FirstOfTheMonth().AddMonths(1).AddDays(-1); } } Consuming Code: void Prepopulate() { startDateBox.CurrentlySelectedDate = DateTime.Now.AddMonths(-1).FirstOfTheMonth(); endDateBox.CurrentlySelectedDate = DateTime.Now.AddMonths(-1).LastOfTheMonth(); }

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• Oracle at the biggest career fair in Germany - Absolventenkongress Cologne

  - by Tim Koekkoek

  On the 28th and 29th of November the annual Absolventenkongress was held in Cologne and Oracle was there! The Absolventenkongress in Cologne is the biggest student and graduate career fair in Germany with around 13,000 people attending every year. Oracle was well presented with Senior Managers, Recruiters and Talent Consultants coming over from Spain, Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands and of course Germany. At our stand, candidates from all kinds of backgrounds came to talk to us about their careers and their plans for the future. Being able to talk directly to individuals who could potentially be their next manager, was a great experience for the candidates! Overall the fair has been a highly successful experience for Oracle and we hope to welcome some people we met during the fair soon as new Oracle employees! If you were unable to attend, but you are still interested in joining Oracle, please have a look at our Facebook page and have the chance to win a Meet & Greet with our sales managers in the Potsdam office. For all of our vacancies please have a look at http://campus.oracle.com.

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• Working the Chart Percentages

  - by Tim Dexter

  Charting in BIP is such fun, well sometimes it is. Not so much today, at least not for Ron in San Diego. He needed a horizontal bar chart showing values plotted for various test areas with value labels at the end of the bars. Simple enough right? The wrinkle, they were percentage values so he needed to see '56%' not '56'! Still, it should be simple enough but the percentage formatting has a requirement for your values to be in a decimal format i.e. 0.56 not 56.0. 56.0 gets formatted as 5600%. OK, so either pull the values out as decimals or use the div function to divide the values in the chart by 100 e.g. <xsl:value-of select="myval div 100)" /> Now I can use the following the chart XML to format the percentages as I need them:   <Graph ... > ... <MarkerText visible="true"> <Y1ViewFormat> <ViewFormat numberType="NUMTYPE_PERCENT" decimalDigit="0" numberTypeUsed="true" leadingZeroUsed="true" decimalDigitUsed="true"/> </Y1ViewFormat> </MarkerText> ... </Graph>   That gets me the values shown the way I want but the auto axis formatting gets me from 0 >> 1. I now need to go in and add the formatting for the axis too.   <Graph ...> ... <Y1Axis axisMinAutoScaled="false" axisMinValue="0.0" axisMaxAutoScaled="false" axisMaxValue="1.0" majorTickStepAutomatic="true"> <ViewFormat numberType="NUMTYPE_PERCENT" decimalDigit="0" scaleFactor="SCALEFACTOR_NONE" numberTypeUsed="true" leadingZeroUsed="true" decimalDigitUsed="true" scaleFactorUsed="true"/> </Y1Axis>   Now I have a chart that's showing the percentage values and formatting axis scale correctly for me too. You can of course mess with the attributes above to get more decimal points on your labels, etc. Happy Charting!

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• November 2012 Chicago IT Architects Group Meeting Announcement

  - by Tim Murphy

  The year is quickly coming to an end.  This is the most exciting part of the year with technology manufacturers in overdrive trying to release as many products for Christmas as possible.  Our group is trying to do our part to bring order to the madness with one last presentation for the year.  Norman Murrin will be speaking on November 20th on Adopting Agile Processes in the Enterprise.  Be sure to join us by registering at the link below. Register del.icio.us Tags: Chicago Information Technology Architects Group,CITAG,Agile,Architecture

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• Best Text-to-Speech Solution for my Website [on hold]

  - by Tim Marshall

  I'm working on the 'Ease of Access' section of my website with the options to increase the font-size displayed on pages to a minimum, invert colours and whatnot. I wish to implement a plugin which, if enabled by the user, to read content on my website. Presumably my best option is a website plugin, however there might be some programming I've not come across which allows the likes of PHP to read content. I'm not entirely sure how this all works.

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• Partitions for dual boot install with Windows

  - by Tim

  Following is the layout of the current partitions of my single hard drive viewed from Windows 7: C: has Windows 7 system files and my personal data; Q: for Lenovo recovery; SYSTEM_DRV: for Windows boot files; My goals are: to create another partition D: for my personal data, and dedicate C: for Windows system files and applications only. to install Ubuntu alongside Windows. D: will be shared between the two OSes. My questions are: Is it correct that the free space generated from shrinking C: will only be able to create an extended partition, since there are already 3 primary partitions? So must D: be one logical partition on the extended partition, just as the partitions for Ubuntu will be? Will this be bad sometime? If yes, other better solutions? What are the good utilities to accomplish the partition tasks? Can Ubuntu installer solely handle them? Or better to have some of the jobs done in Windows with some recommended softwares? Thanks and regards!

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• Review: Logitech t620 Touch Mouse and Windows 8

  - by Tim Murphy

  It isn’t very often that I worry much about hardware, but since I heard some others talking about “touch” mice for their Windows 8 machines I figured I would try one out and see what the experience was.  The only Windows 8 compatible touch mouse that they had in the store was the Logitech t630 Touch Mouse.  At $69 it isn’t exactly a cheap purchase. So how does it work with Windows 8.  First it works well as a normal mouse with touch scroll capabilities.  Scrolling works both horizontally and vertically.  Then you get into to the Win8 features, all of which are associated with the back 2/3 of the mouse.  If you double-touch-tap (not depressing the internal button) it acts as a Windows home screen button.  The next feature is switching applications.  This is accomplished by dragging a finger from the left edge of the mouse in.  Bringing up the Windows 8 open apps list is the same movement as on the table where you drag in from the left and then move back to the right.  The last gesture available is to bring up the charms.  This is performed by dragging in from the right side of the mouse. There is a certain amount of configurability.  You can switch dominant hand configuration as well as turn on and off gestures as shown in the screenshot below. It is nice that they kept the gestures similar to the table gestures.  Hopefully future updates to the drivers will bring other gestures, but this is definitely a good start.  It would be interesting to also compare this to the Microsoft Touch Mouse and see if there are additional gestures such as app close and for the app bar. del.icio.us Tags: Logitech,Windows 8,Win8,t620,Logitech t620 Touch Mouse,Gesture

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• How to access UbuntOne when it asks for default keyring which has never been set?

  - by obu-tim

  I am trying to set up UbuntuOne on a new computer and after I enter the email and password, it asks for the keyring 'default'. I don't know what it is and I never set it. Makes it difficult to enter so it seems to be a counterproductive security default. I understand that if autologin is set the keyring is called. I tried setting the main user to need a password but if I reboot it doesn't ask for the password so it sort of autoboots still. So How do I set the keyring default password? If I can't set it I can't install UbuntOne

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• Building Enterprise Smartphone App &ndash; Part 3: Key Concerns

  - by Tim Murphy

  This is part 3 in a series of posts based on a talk I gave recently at the Chicago Information Technology Architects Group.  Feel free to leave feedback. Keys Concerns Of Smartphones In The Enterprise These are the factors that you need to be aware of and address in order to build successful enterprise smartphone applications.  Most of them have nothing to do with the application itself as you will see here. Managing Devices Managing devices is a factor that is going to effect how much your company will have to spend outside of developing the applications.  How will you track the devices within the corporation?  How often will you have to replace phones and as a consequence have to upgrade your applications to support new phones?  The devices can represent a significant investment of capital.  If these questions are not addressed you will find a number of hidden costs throughout the life of your solution. Purchase or BYOD We have seen the trend of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) lately within the enterprise.  How many meetings have you been in where someone is on their personal iPad, iPhone, Android phone or Windows Phone?  The issue is if you can afford to support everyone's choice in device? That is a lot to take on even if you only support the current release of each platform. Do you go with the most popular device or do you pick a platform that best matches your current ecosystem and distribute company owned devices?  There is no easy answer here, but you should be able give some dollar value to both hardware and development costs related to platform coverage. Asset Tracking/Insurance Smartphones are devices that are easier to lose or have stolen than laptops and desktops. Not only do you have your normal asset management concerns but also assignment of financial responsibility. You also will need to insure them against damage and theft and add legal documents that spell out the responsibilities of the employees that use these devices. Personal vs. Corporate Data What happens when you terminate an employee?  How do you recover the device?  What happens when they have put personal data on the device?  These are all situation that can cause possible loss of corporate intellectual property or legal repercussions of reclaiming a device with personal data on it.  Policies need to be put in place that protect the company from being exposed to type of loss.  This can mean significant legal and procedural cost that you need to consider. Coming Up In the last installment of this series I will cover application development considerations. del.icio.us Tags: Smartphones,Enterprise Smartphone Apps,Architecture

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• Changed profiles; lost Ubuntu; how do I get it back?

  - by Tim

  Installed Ubuntu-secure-remix 12.10 in a dual boot with Windows 8 on an HP laptop. A first-time Linux user, I was exploring settings when I changed profiles (not sure what I changed it to). Now the Linux boots into what I believe is the shell. I can still log in (that is, I am already a user - so that's still there). Due possibly to using rEFInd, I cannot figure how to run Ubuntu in recovery mode. How can I get Ubuntu back up and running again? Thanks in advance.

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• Declaring variables in SQL

  - by Tim Hibbard

  I would like to blog more about the problems I encounter on a daily basis.  I find that taking 10 minutes or so to write a simple solution to my problems helps me retain that information. I always forget the specific syntax to declaring variables in T-SQL.  declare @startdate datetime; declare @enddate datetime;   set @startdate = '04/01/2010'; set @enddate = '04/30/2010';   select count(id) from triphistory where tripdate between @startdate and @enddate

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• Building Enterprise Smartphone App &ndash; Part 1: Why Build Smart Phone Apps

  - by Tim Murphy

  This is part 1 in a series of post based on a talk I gave recently at the Chicago Information Technology Architects Group.  Feel free to leave feedback. Intro Most of us already carry smartphones. We play games on them. We keep up with what is going on with our friends and our favorite teams. We take pictures of our kids at their events. But the question is if that is all they are good for. Many companies have aspects of their business that lend themselves to being performed by mobile devices. Some of them lean toward larger device such as tablets, but many can be executed on smartphones. This and the following articles will discuss some of the possible applications of smartphone technology for businesses, the platforms that are available and the considerations you need to make when building them. I'll take a look at some specific scenarios and wrap up with a couple of capabilities that are just emerging that can be used in the future. Why Build Enterprise Smartphone Applications So what are some of the ways that you can leverage smartphone technology to gain efficiency in your business or a clients business. There are a few major areas that I have seen mobile platforms being an advantage to. Your mobile sales force is a key candidate for leveraging smartphone apps.  They can visit clients in their retail location and place orders on site. It is a more personal approach which can gain you customer loyalty.  A sales person may also gather information about the way a client does business or who their target market is. This allows them you to focus marketing information or build customized support for your customer. You may also have need to track physical inventory in a store. This is something that has historically been done with laser scanners, but with the camera capabilities in today's phones and tablets it is possible to use more general multi-purpose devices.  This can save costs on both hardware and telecommunication contracts. Delivery verification is another area that historically has been the domain of specialized devices but can now be accomplished with smartphones.  This also reduces costs because it is also used for communicating with the driver and other operations.  Add to that the navigation capability of smartphones and you can see how the return on investment increases. Executives are always on the go. They spend most of their time in meetings and yet they need access to decision making information at their finger tips. With a smartphone app they can get alerts when major sales are closed or critical accounting process are completed that may need their attention. They can also answer questions by instantly pulling up BI reports. I have often heard operations support people say that they need things like VPN and RDP from their phones. If they can also have notifications of outages or critical support requests they can be react to situations without needing to be tied to their desks. These are all valid reasons to need smartphone applications.  In the next installment I will discuss platforms and features. del.icio.us Tags: Smartphones,Enterprise Smartphone Apps,Architecture

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• Should you apply a language filter to a randomly generated string?

  - by Tim

  A while back I created a licensing system for my companies new product, as well as all products after this one. As with a lot of licensing systems mine generates codes: 25 character product and registration codes, as well as 16 character module unlocking codes. My question is, since some parts of these generated codes are random should I apply a language filter to it to avoid any embarrassing language being given to the end users? I chose to as it was not difficult at all. But has anyone else ever came across something like this? Any viewpoints as to if it is worth the effort?

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• BIP 11g Dynamic SQL

  - by Tim Dexter

  Back in the 10g release, if you wanted something beyond the standard query for your report extract; you needed to break out your favorite text editor. You gotta love 'vi' and hate emacs, am I right? And get to building a data template, they were/are lovely to write, such fun ... not! Its not fun writing them by hand but, you do get to do some cool stuff around the data extract including dynamic SQL. By that I mean the ability to add content dynamically to your your query at runtime. With 11g, we spoiled you with a visual builder, no more vi or notepad sessions, a friendly drag and drop interface allowing you to build hierarchical data sets, calculated columns, summary columns, etc. You can still create the dynamic SQL statements, its not so well documented right now, in lieu of doc updates here's the skinny. If you check out the 10g process to create dynamic sql in the docs. You need to create a data trigger function where you assign the dynamic sql to a global variable that's matched in your report SQL. In 11g, the process is really the same, BI Publisher just provides a bit more help to define what trigger code needs to be called. You still need to create the function and place it inside a package in the db. Here's a simple plsql package with the 'beforedata' function trigger. Spec create or replace PACKAGE BIREPORTS AS whereCols varchar2(2000); FUNCTION beforeReportTrig return boolean; end BIREPORTS; Body create or replace PACKAGE BODY BIREPORTS AS   FUNCTION beforeReportTrig return boolean AS   BEGIN       whereCols := ' and d.department_id = 100';     RETURN true;   END beforeReportTrig; END BIREPORTS; you'll notice the additional where clause (whereCols - declared as a public variable) is hard coded. I'll cover parameterizing that in my next post. If you can not wait, check the 10g docs for an example. I have my package compiling successfully in the db. Now, onto the BIP data model definition. 1. Create a new data model and go ahead and create your query(s) as you would normally. 2. In the query dialog box, add in the variables you want replaced at runtime using an ampersand rather than a colon e.g. &whereCols.   select     d.DEPARTMENT_NAME, ...  from    "OE"."EMPLOYEES" e,     "OE"."DEPARTMENTS" d  where   d."DEPARTMENT_ID"= e."DEPARTMENT_ID" &whereCols   Note that 'whereCols' matches the global variable name in our package. When you click OK to clear the dialog, you'll be asked for a default value for the variable, just use ' and 1=1' That leading space is important to keep the SQL valid ie required whitespace. This value will be used for the where clause if case its not set by the function code. 3. Now click on the Event Triggers tree node and create a new trigger of the type Before Data. Type in the default package name, in my example, 'BIREPORTS'. Then hit the update button to get BIP to fetch the valid functions.In my case I get to see the following: Select the BEFOREREPORTTRIG function (or your name) and shuttle it across. 4. Save your data model and now test it. For now, you can update the where clause via the plsql package. Next time ... parametrizing the dynamic clause.

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• Can I resize my partitions?

  - by Tim

  Following is a screenshot of my current partitions shown by gparted Note that the partitions on the right of /dev/sda3, without labels on them in the figure, are /dev/sda6 (for /home), /dev/sda7 (for /), unallocated, and /dev/sda5 (for swap), from left to right, form altogether the primary partition /dev/sda4. I would like to resize the partitions, such that some unused space from /dev/sda7 (for /) and the small unallocated space can be moved to /dev/sda3 (for /windows-d) and make it larger. If it is possible, I wonder how to do that? Thanks and regards!

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